Single pathway for students announced by Federal Education Minister

Speaking at the BIG Skills conference in Sydney on 11 March, the Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard announced closer links between the vocational education and training sector and universities. Some of the key points of her speech were:

“Australia's vocational and academic systems must be able to speak a common language. They must work together to address Australia's knowledge economy needs and they must develop easier pathways between each system for Australian students...

“...Ultimately, we need the two systems to work together to produce integrated responses to national needs in knowledge, skill development and social inclusion.

“Two systems, one shared vision: a stronger and fairer Australia.

“To build these vitally needed pathways between universities and VET, I announce today that the Government will commission the Australian Qualifications Framework Council to improve the articulation and connectivity between the university and VET sectors to enable competency-based and merit-based systems to become more student-focused.

“Today I am also announcing that the ambit of Skills Australia will expand to encompass the full scope of Australia's labour market needs, to give advice to the Commonwealth about the effectiveness of both the university and VET systems in meeting the broad range of Australia's skill needs...”